EAOC/ESP Product Management 24/03/2010

Dear Colleague, It gives us immense pleasure to present |VArticle|, a one page article dedicated to Reactive Power Management that will be circulated on the 25th of every month. The aim is to create awareness on latest technology, trends and present some facts in the domain of reactive power management. It would also give information about the available product options to satisfy customer requirements. Go green, save energy, save nature This is one of the topics that is currently under the spotlight. It can be looked at, either as an emergency or an effective business technique employed by many companies. Yes, its true, going green can not only save our planet but also increase our business. One of the simplest ways of going green is by reducing CO2 emission. This can be achieved through power quality improvement techniques that save power. Power quality improvement includes reducing reactive power consumption, reducing harmonics, maintaining the wave shapes and other such techniques. Thus Reactive Power Management refers to the improvement of power quality in any industry. Lets begin with an interesting, yet less discussed topic Importance of harmonic mitigation. Kindly feel free to get in touch with us for more details.

Regards Chandru R Product Management - Reactive Power Management Products

Issue 1 03/2010

|VArticle|
Months Topic: Harmonic Mitigation
In modern electrical networks, a lot of power electronic devices are used for optimum control and convenience. However, these power electronic devices inturn affect the power quality of the system because they generate harmonics. International standardisation has been tackling these phenomena for many years, and the standards and recommendations in force are yet to produce significant results in India. There are certain cases of malfunctions linked essentially to the above phenomena; some of these are illustrated below: Overloading of power factor correction capacitors. Tripping of protection devices Overloads in neutral conductors due to third-order harmonics created by single-phase loads, Overheating of cables Overloading of transformers or generators

The above malfunctions are not always felt immediately after the system is installed, but the effects may be felt in the long term and are difficult to distinguish from the natural ageing of equipment. In harmonic rich environments (non-linear load connected in the system is greater than 20% of the total load) some of the following design considerations need to be incorporated in Automatic Power Factor correction system design. 1. Heavy duty capacitors (Capacitors having a higher overload and peak inrush current withstand) need to be used. 2. Depending on the nature of the non linear load, a suitable de-tuned reactor (5.67%, 7%, 14%) might have to be used 3. When capacitors are used along with de-tune reactors, the voltage that appears across the capacitor increases (typically by around 10% as it is the vector sum of the system voltage and the voltage across the reactor). Moreover to achieve a net output of the reactor capacitor combination, a higher kVAR capacitor needs to be used that will compensate for the kVARs used up by the de-tuned reactor. 4. To achieve the desired de-tuning frequency, 1/(2 ) of the capacitor-reactor combination (In case of a de-tuned reactor, this frequency is well below the resonant frequency of the system) the LC combination is of crucial importance. If a lower value capacitor is used, the de-tuning frequncy of the combination will increase and might even co-incide with the resonant frequncy of the system. This can be a very dangerous condition. Thus the capacitor reactor combination has to be selected properly for successful harmonic mitigation. It is difficult to solve harmonics related problems, once the power factor correcting capacitors are installed. It is thus important to incorporate harmonic mitigation techniques in the system design stage itself.